Humans

When the sun is highest in the sky the humans touch down on the planet. They come in a massive, panting ship that kicks up Tarnan's purple dirt, causing it to dance all over itself. The ship digs it's legs into the planet's flesh and the human's spill out.

They are wearing chunky white space suits, their peculiar faces covered by large, dark bubble helmets. They are armed with small, holstered laser cannons and energy grenades. They yell at one another in their cacophonous, grating language. Then they march on the unsuspecting village. The gods turn their faces and go to sleep.

Energy grenades shatter windows and blow babies sleeping in their cribs to confetti sized strips of flesh. Laser blasts obliterate the meat and bones of men holding casual conversations with one another at the village well. Women are dragged by their silver hair, thrashing and screaming through the purple streets. Their bodies are desecrated and then their throats are slit.

Tarnanites run screaming. Their limbs mush. Eyeballs drooling from sockets. Bits of brain poking out adventurously where the skull has been peeled away. Bodies litter the streets. The warriors ready their bows and arrows. Their swords and hammers. Their weapons are too primitive. King Hammond leads the charge still. He kisses Cardiminia goodbye before he leaves the castle. "Where is Jora?" is the last thing he says before he died.

After the humans raze the castle they paint what is left of the holy garden with their urine. They ransack each house, sampling what they can find of Tarnanite food and making disgusted pinched faces at the foreign flavors before burning whole compounds to ash. They laugh, making idle conversation, stepping over bodies. They try to remove the great bubbles of their helmets but there is not enough oxygen in the atmosphere to make living on the planet worthwhile. It seems the invasion was a waste of their time and firepower. They would need to continue their search for a new home. Irritably, they file back into the ship and take off into the stars. But before their exit, Jora is awakened by the blast of a cannon.

He sits up on the tree limb where he had been sleeping. Vile snakes of black smoke are rising from the village. He can see the massive ship digging it's claws in the earth. The foreign bodies in their chunky suits, moving through the streets. The wind carries the screams to him. There is a terrible taste in the back of his throat. He knows instantly what is happening.

Jora leaps down from the tree and takes off running towards the village. My people I'm coming. I'm coming to save you. I'm coming. Amerra. Cardimina. Hammond. Amerra. Cardiminia. Hammond. He repeats those names over and over and over again in his head. The mantra to keep his legs pumping. To keep the fear from crippling him.

At last he breaks through the leaves and limbs of the forest into the clearing where they had set up camp mere hours ago. His lungs are screaming in his chest but he keeps pushing his body forward until he reaches the outskirts of the village. He doesn't see the wayward energy grenade until he has already stepped on it. The tell tale ticking. Jora covers his head with his arms and throws his body backwards but the blast is still too much. He feels his body being propelled through the air, wind slicing like knives all around him. Then blackness.